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I bought this used truck 2 weeks ago. 5.4l 3v 180K. A few months prior seller had a mechanic do the timing system since he started hearing clicking sounds. All ford OEM parts besides Melling oil pump and lockout phasers. Mechanic did not pull the oil pan because he recovered all intact pieces of chain guides. Drove totally fine around town and rural areas (Sub 60mph). First time I went to drive a mountain pass a few days after I bought it, it started losing power, and the oil pressure gauge dropped to low. It would intermittently go back up and down. Driving back down in the valley, it would be fine. Threw a code for a mis fire on cyl 3. I replaced the plug and COP on that cylinder. Thought it might be the oil pressure sensor. Replaced that with an oil change. Started and idled fine for 10 min. Drove about 5 miles at 50mph, started losing power and the oil pressure plummeted again. I was close to home and parked it. Pulled the right and left valve covers and checked the CVT solenoid screens, totally clean and clear. Pulled the oil pan and found carnage....
Pulled a bunch of metal and colored gasket maker out of the oil pickup.
Large flakes of metal are magnetic. Just hoping someone can help figure out what they would be coming from, and if I did this damage, or it was previous.
Also since the engine ran fine at idle and low rpms, before the oil pressure dropped, if its possible to clean it out super nice and do a few "oil change flushes" and see how it runs, or should I just not waste my time and look at a new engine?
Check your crankshaft end play. .I'm not sure what would make magnetic debris but guessing thrust washers maybe unless you had a chewed up cam followers.
They usually end up wiping out the cam lobe though and that would be obvious.
Looks like specs of metal all in the valve train as well. Blows me away that a "mechanic" did a timing job and used an excuse of "he recovered all intact pieces of chain guides" to not spend a little time dropping and cleaning out the oil pan which is a major cause of why engines fail. That's either a scammer or a very ignorant mechanic. I would be questioning everything that mechanic did. I'm sorry.
Why would someone go to the expense of paying someone else to do a full OEM timing job and then sell the vehicle a few months later? I would question that decision. Looks like someone unloaded their problematic truck to you. Just looking at it from another viewpoint.
Not a good thing to find metal in your oil drain pan. Have you removed the oil filter, cut it open, and looked for metal in it?
As needsmoaturbo said, check crankshaft end play. Check to see if the thrust washers are still in place. Check the rod bearings as well. My guess is that this engine and potentially the entire truck was at end of life and was patched up to sell.
Those flakes could be remnants of timing cover being beaten on by the chains. If the engine wasn’t run for months with the chains loose. Actually, those are likely aluminum and buried in sludge.
Hilarious patch job and spent extra for phaser lockouts (assuming they are even good OEM phasers) and I bet there isn’t even a tune to go with it to help the engine run worth a flip.
You need to grab a real pressure gauge and check idle oil pressure. The gauge tells you that 7(?) PSI is low and that’s all that’s relevant here. Ford spec was 25 PSI and later got revised to 15, I believe. More is better, as far as those numbers go.
If I’m in that spot, I’m starting over.
Last edited by Johnny Paycheck; 11-09-2023 at 10:23 AM.
- not put any stock in what was told to you by the seller and/or in what was supposedly done/not done.
- also wouldn’t put big time/money into that engine
BUT, it will take very little time and money to clean up that pan, do a couple engine flushes, and try it again with some fresh/good 5/30 and good filter. Worst case, you’re out $100-200 and a couple hours. But at least you’ll know you tried. Maybe you’ll get lucky.
And if you do try to resolve the issues with the current engine like I said I think the top of the list should be checking the crank endplay. (There are good videos on YouTube or how to do this on your truck) as that seems to be the nail in the coffin for one of these engines.
If that is good then you should also remove the oil pickup tube and really pick out the debris from the screen with a pick tool and flush it out with brake kleen. Then reinstall with a new o-ring.
You could pull of a cam journal cap to get an indication of how much wear or scoring there is as well as plastic gage it for giggles
Finally even if your phasers are locked I think you should use 5w30 oil as your minimum viscosity. Some even use 5w40 with improvement it really depends on the clearances and wear your engine has as to what you need.
Appreciate all the feedback! I did my best to check the crankshaft end play. There is a slight gap between the pulley and the front cover, but with a pry bar I couldn't get it to move in either direction. I still have the oil pan off and I can see what I believe to be the thrust washer still in place at the end of the crankshaft.
I agree that it would be silly to put a bunch of time and money into this engine. I think for now, I'm just going to clean everything up as nice as I can and run some conventional oil through for a bit and checking the filter.
You are were very helpful! I'll post up here what all happens!
Well, it started up fine, but has a pretty bad knocking sound that doesn't go away at any rpm. Not really sure what to do anymore but put a remanufactured engine in. Thoughts of anything else I could try first?
11-08-2023, 10:04 PM
2008 5.4l 3v Large metal flakes in oil pan
